Carl Frampton vs. Leo Santa Cruz on July 30 at Barclays Center

By Boxing News - 04/28/2016 - Comments

Image: Carl Frampton vs. Leo Santa Cruz on July 30 at Barclays CenterBy Scott Gilfoid: Carl Frampton (22-0, 14 KOs) will be moving up in weight in three months from now to take on unbeaten WBA World featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (32-0-1, 18 KOs) on July 30 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

This is going to be a tough fight for the diminutive 5’5” Frampton, because he’ll be fighting a bigger guy in 5’7 ½” Santa Cruz, and he won’t be enjoying the hometown advantage by being able to fight in his home city of Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Frampton didn’t look so hot the last time he fought in the United States in July 2015, when he was knocked down twice by the little known 22-year-old Alejandro Gonzalez in El Paso, Texas. Frampton got the 12 round decision win, but he fought out the hard way that he can’t outslug everyone he faces.

The 28-year-old Frampton gave up his IBF super bantamweight title on Thursday so that he could move up and challenge Santa Cruz for his WBA featherweight crown. Recently, Frampton vacated his WBA title after the World Boxing Association ordered him to fight Guillermo Rigondeaux.

Frampton took some heat over that, as it looked like a duck job on his part in giving up the WBA title to avoid what many fans see as the best fighter in the super bantamweight division in Rigondeaux.

Frampton will be at a disadvantage in size and of course in fighting in a strange country that might be alien to him. However, the promoters of the event are making it easy on Frampton to adjust by having the fight take place in New York, where there is a sizable Irish community that will likely turn out to see Frampton fight.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Frampton’s fans outnumber Santa Cruz’s. However, that doesn’t mean that Frampton is going to win the fight, because he’s facing a guy with better punching power, a longer reach, a better jab, and younger.

Santa Cruz is a better fighter in every facet of his game than Frampton in my view. Santa Cruz is even a better boxer. The only thing Frampton can really hope to do in this fight is to hit and move, and try and be clever in the ring like he was in the first half of his fight against Scott Quigg in their fight last February.

Frampton had Quigg tied in knots mentally for the first six rounds. It wasn’t until the much bigger and stronger Quigg got a clue and started using his size and strength to his advantage in the second half of the fight that we saw how limited Frampton is.

Quigg created the blueprint in how to beat Frampton by putting him under relentless pressure for three minutes of every round and hitting him as hard as possible. Frampton did not like getting hit hard by Quigg, and he definitely hated the pressure. Quigg had Frampton on the run in the last half of the contest. It’s too bad Quigg didn’t fight that way early in the fight because he would have won it.

“This is the fight I wanted and I’m 100 per cent confident that the belt will be coming home to Belfast,” said Frampton via skysports.com. “Santa Cruz is a strong and aggressive undefeated champion, but his style is made for me. Myself and my team have been chasing this fight for a long, long time and that’s because we know we have the tools to beat Leo. He throws a lot shots and is a proven operator, it’s going to be a great fight.”

I wouldn’t say that Santa Cruz’s style is made for Frampton. Nah, I think it’s the opposite. Frampton’s pot-shotting, gimmicky style is perfect for Santa Cruz, who believes in doing the hard work to win the fights. He’s not going to try and get a cheap win by pot shotting and running like we see with Frampton.

With this fight being in the U.S, Frampton is going to need to put in a lot more effort and standing and fighting rather than hitting and moving, because that style won’t likely impress the judges in the States. They tend to score rounds to the aggressor in fights, and the hit and run fighters typically don’t do too well unless their name is Floyd Mayweather Jr.